No special matters in Cabinet. Mr. Seward sent me on
Saturday a correspondence between himself and Lord Lyons and the Treasury
Department relative to a large amount of cotton which was purchased a few
months since in Georgia by one John Mulholland, an Englishman, who desires to
bring it out, or, if he could not do that, to have it protected. The Secretary
of State wrote the Secretary of the Treasury for views. The Treasury thought
the proposition to bring it out inadmissible, but when our military lines were
so extended as to include this cotton the agents of the Treasury would give it
the same care as the property of loyal citizens; thinks it would be well to
advise the Navy and War Departments to instruct their officers. Hence the
communication to me.
I decline giving any such instructions, and so have written
Mr. Seward, considering it illegal as well as inexpedient, telling him it would
be a precedent for transferring all the products of the South into foreign
hands to pay for munitions of war which we should be bound to protect. None but
Englishmen would have the presumption to make such a request. It is entitled to
no respect or consideration. Not unlikely it is cotton of the Rebel government
covered
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 2: April 1, 1864 —
December 31, 1866, p. 40
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